HOME |
RSS | 
(Image credit: Wikipedia user Karrackoo)
Westminster Palace on the Thames river in London is the place where the parliament of the United Kingdom meets, both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The palace, along with Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret’s Church, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is also a must-see for anyone visiting London. The first palace on the site was built in the eleventh century as a residence for royalty. A fire almost destroyed the palace in 1512. After that, the King or Queen lived elsewhere and parliament met in the rebuilt structure. Another large fire ruined much of the complex in 1834. The rebuild after that disaster (which incorporated surviving parts of the original palace) gave the Palace of Westminster the look it has today. The construction took decades. In 1844, parliament decided the new palace should have a bell tower with a clock, which became the iconic tower we all recognize.
(Image credit: Flickr user Jon McGovern)
The nickname “Big Ben” is specifically for the clock’s hour bell (officially named the Great Bell), the largest of the five bells, but in common use also refers to the clock faces and the tower itself.
However, the proper name for the tower is the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster. It is also called St. Stephen’s Tower, a name given to the tower by Victorian journalists who also called the hall of parliament “St. Stephen’s Hall”. The Chapel of St. Stephen was originally built inside Westminster Palace as a private church for the king in the 13th-14th centuries (it took 70 years to complete). In 1547, parliament moved in and the chapel became the Commons Chamber. The House of Commons met there until the fire of 1834, which explains the use of the term St. Stephen’s Hall as used by journalists.
Big Ben, the London clock tower, Westminster Palace clock tower bell, has a Twitter account. Online, it says the same thing it has always said in real life. The account was opened as a statement on the banality of Twitter, but Big Ben now has over six thousand followers! Come to think of it, this IS handy if you want to know what time it is in London. Link -via Blame It On The Voices
